Dear Readers, do you imagine that people enter politics with the idea of doing good ?  Politicians of the left ? Perhaps. Politicians of the right ?  Well, in one sense you might be correct: politicians of the right enter politics with one paramount aim – evidence shows it beyond any shadow of doubt – to do good; to themselves and their mates.

And you can’t do good for anybody if there’s no funds to dip into.  The situation is getting desperate: if the economy is damaged much more taxes will have to rise, umpteen businesses will go bust, and opportunities for self-enrichment out of the public purse will start to die away.  Something must be done.

First step: no more lock down after the current spell comes to an end on 2 December.

That’s a problem, because, as Lord Sumption has pointed out, by that stage nothing will have changed: no vaccine, however promising, will be available; the weather will remain bleak; and university students will be desperate to get home.  The current plan is to test them, and for those who test negative, release them slowly back into the community; and the result of that will be, as sure as eggs is eggs,  a spike in the virus.

We may not be heading for a very happy Christmas.